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The Mandalorian, Chapter 23: The Spies – episode analysis

13/4/2023

Translation: Veronica Bielawski

Big revelations, lots of action and a concentrated load of Mandalorians – after last week’s weak episode follows one of the best The Mandalorian episodes ever. Time for a deep dive.

Welcome to the second to last episode analysis! First off: this episode breakdown includes spoilers! So watch The Mandalorian – Chapter 23: The Spies before you read on.

The last episode, Chapter 22: Guns for Hire, wasn’t quite my jam. It was too silly. Too contrived. In it, Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze wanted to convince the Mandalorian mercenaries to rejoin her. They had once served as Nite Owls under Bo-Katan – and only a united people can reclaim the nearly destroyed home planet of Mandalore. The catch? In order to be allowed to speak to the troop, Din and Bo-Katan first had to solve a battle droid problem for Captain Bombardier. It was a classic filler episode, interspersed with awkward guest appearances by Jack Black, Christopher Lloyd and Lizzo.

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The Mandalorian, Chapter 22: Guns for Hire – episode analysis
by Luca Fontana

In the end, the former Nite Owls did indeed rejoin Bo-Katan after Din gave her the Darksaber, a Mandalorian weapon of high symbolic value that’s closely intertwined with the Mand’alor title and thus leadership over the Mandalorians. I won’t sugarcoat it. That episode was more «unfunny Disney Channel sitcom for preteens» than The Mandalorian.

So, how was this week? At the recent Star Wars Celebration, Bo-Katan actress Katee Sackhoff announced that we were in for big things in the last two episodes of season three. Of course, she knew what they’d shot. And Sackhoff didn’t overpromise. Chapter 23: The Spies lived up to just that.

The strategist

The fact that Amnesty Officer Elia Kane never really turned loyal to the New Republic was obvious. But who would have thought it was in fact Moff Gideon, who’d gone missing, giving her orders from his secret base?

Moff Gideon is once again the master puppeteer.
Source: Disney / Lucasfilm

But the plot has yet to thicken. Gideon is part of the Shadow Council, first mentioned in author Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath novels. Set immediately after the destruction of the second Death Star, the novels explain how the New Republic was founded, and how the disintegrating Empire formed into the First Order in the shadow of its defeat. A key moment in this process is the founding of said Shadow Council.

To paraphrase Gallius Rax in Star Wars: Aftermath – Life Debt: ... I am forming a Shadow Council to rule the Empire behind the scenes with only the best of our kind: the first and top category of Imperial thinkers ...

In the novels, the Shadow Council is ultimately crushed and the Empire is thus defeated once and for all. At least that’s what it seems like. We now know that the few survivors of the old Council have joined forces with new members, such as Moff Gideon, and await the return of what may be the best strategist Star Wars has ever seen:

Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Even in the latest Ahsoka trailer, Thrawn’s figure is kept a big secret. We now know he’ll be played by actor Lars Mikkelsen.
Source: Disney / Lucasfilm

To this day, Thrawn has die-hard fans of the old canon shuddering. He was originally introduced in Timothy Zahn’s 1990s trilogy of novels, Heir to the Empire. The Emperor is said to have banished Thrawn to the Unknown Regions because he feared his intelligence and rapid rise. When the Emperor died, Thrawn returned and took over the remnants of the defeated Imperial fleet after the destruction of the second Death Star. With his foresight and acumen, the military genius quickly emerged as an even more dangerous adversary than the Emperor himself.

When Disney took over the rights to Star Wars and deleted Heir to the Empire from the canon, they only kept Thrawn, who had become iconic among fans. But he was kept on as a new character for the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, set several decades before Heirs to the Empire. At the end of the series, however, Thrawn disappeared without a trace into the – wait for it – Unknown Regions, only to reappear now, a little more than five years after the destruction of the second Death Star. That’s pretty much at the time that he was once introduced in the books, and with a similar backstory. A brilliant twist, in my opinion, to partially bring Heirs to the Empire back into the canon.

The Shadow Council

Thrawn’s return is shrouded in rumours. Gilad Pellaeon in particular campaigns for Thrawn. Incidentally, in Heirs of the Empire, Pellaeon was Thrawn’s closest confidant and commander on the Chimaera, Thrawn’s Star Destroyer. I’ll be «dank farrik’ed» if the Chimaera doesn’t at the latest make an appearance in the upcoming Ahsoka series.

In the meantime, however, Moff Gideon may not be willing to wait much longer for Thrawn. His focus lies on Mandalore. After Gideon led the Great Purge there, the Mandalorian people were not only nearly wiped out, but the entire planet was devastated and rendered virtually uninhabitable. He’s now apparently caught wind that the Mandalorians are rallying to take back the planet. Of course, this is a thorn in the side of the Shadow Council. While the New Republic under Chancellor Mon Mothma is thinking more about demilitarisation, the warlike Mandalorians could indeed become a serious threat to the fragile foundation of the Empire. This must be avoided.

Illustrious members of the Shadow Council include Moff Gideon, Brendol Hux and Gilad Pellaeon.
Source: Disney / Lucasfilm

Gideon gets what he wanted from the Shadow Council, namely military resources and Praetorian Guards to protect him. Incidentally, these elite fighters in their iconic red armour were also mentioned in the Aftermath novels. In fact, in both the books and the series, they were recruited on the planet Jakku as children and trained as guardsmen by Commander Brendol Hux, father of the later General Armitage Hux. Later, they’d guard Supreme Leader Snoke in the throne room and fight Ben Solo and Rey Skywalker. For now, however, three of them are tasked with protecting Gideon.

At the end of an eventful first ten minutes, another name comes up: Project Necromancer. Could this be the origin of Snoke? My money’s on something else. A necromancer is, after all, someone who speaks to the dead. So for me, Project Necromancer is about bringing someone back from the dead. Namely, Emperor Palpatine.

The confession

Meanwhile, on Nevarro, Bo-Katan’s Nite Owls meet Din Djarin’s Children of the Watch. Given that both groups hate each other, the meeting goes surprisingly smoothly. A plan is hatched. The Mandalorians move their fleet into orbit around Mandalore so that a small reconnaissance party can scout the surface and set up base camp at what was once the Great Forge of Mandalore. In the meantime, Grogu gets a kind of mech, the IG-12. It’s made from the remains of his former protector IG-11 – but he can control this one himself.

I have just one word: YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.
Source: Disney / Lucasfilm

Back on Mandalore, a lot happens in a short time. The recon party around Din Djarin, Bo-Katan, the Armorer, Paz Vizsla, Axe Woves and another half-dozen encounter a small group of Mandalorians who have been «sailing» across the planet for decades on a kind of sailing ship equipped with runners, fighting for sheer survival.

They – and Mandalorians in general, as well as we ourselves – have always believed that the Empire once destroyed Mandalore because the warlike people refused to bow to the dictatorial regime. But then Bo-Katan, as the former leader of the Mandalorians, makes a shocking confession:

she had, in fact, surrendered.

All eyes go wide. Including mine. After all, that goes against pretty much everything the proud Mandalorian culture stands for; a culture that’d rather fight to its death than surrender. But after the Great Purge – the Night of a Thousand Tears – the extinction of Bo-Katan’s people was all but certain. And Gideon offered her a very last resort: in exchange for the Darksaber and her surrender, he would spare the planet and remaining survivors.

Bo-Katan decided against her traditions in favour of her people – and was betrayed by Gideon. He didn’t keep his promise and continued his purge. Now it’s clear why Bo-Katan has been targeting Gideon since Chapter 11: The Heiress. It’s not just to assert her birthright claim to rule Mandalore. It’s personal. Gideon humiliated her more than any lost battle could have through her surrender, which ended up being for nothing.

Way of the Mand'alor

Alas, the past can’t be changed. But the future can be made. Bo-Katan Kryze may doubt that she has the strength to hold together the fragile alliance between the individual clans (Grogu mediates a dispute in a heartfelt scene), but Din Djarin has her back. He’d never followed her because of her royal bloodline. And certainly not because of the Darksaber. No; his reasons for following her were honour, loyalty and character.

I let out a cheer in front of the TV.

Why? Because this is exactly the Way of the Mand’alor! Din Djarin reminds us that the Mandalorians have long known no fixed succession or unbroken lineages. In fact, the Mandalorian people often lived for hundreds or even thousands of years without a Mand’alor, that is, with no ruler. They had neither hierarchical structures nor a stable government. The chief was only needed when the clans scattered across the galaxy needed to be brought together and united under a common banner to counter threats or even start a war. Like now.

It was not until millennia after the founding of their people that these customs changed. Namely, when the ruling House Kryze came to dominate Mandalore in the wake of the Mandalorian Civil Wars. From then on, the old ways were deemed far too conservative; merely belligerent customs of religious zealots like the Children of the Watch. That’s why the Children of the Watch retreated to the Mandalore moon Concordia. And that’s why they survived the Great Purge of Mandalore.

Ah, the irony of fate.

The Dark Troopers

Arriving at the Great Forge (I’ll skip the awesome staged montage with great music, originally penned by Ludwig Göransson) comes the next big reveal of the episode. Who’s been secretly hiding in the forge all along? Moff Gideon, the very person who’d tried to destroy it.

A fierce battle ensues between Gideon’s Dark Troopers and the ragtag bunch of Mandalorians. Let’s recap: in Chapter 16: The Rescue, there was a showdown between the third generation of Dark Troopers and Luke Skywalker. Back then, the prototypes stood no chance. But Gideon continued the Dark Trooper programme, creating the next generation of warriors.

The Dark Troopers were mentioned for the first time in the 1991 and 1992 versions of the Dark Empire trilogy, a comic series originally published by Dark Horse. In that series, Emperor Palpatine has already returned as a clone and tried to draw Luke to the Dark Side. All this to say, the Emperor story from Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, hated by fans, isn’t purely a Disney invention; it’s a loose interpretation of existing material.

In the Dark Empire trilogy, Dark Troopers are specially trained, elite stormtroopers that have been strengthened by blood transfusions from the Dark Side of the Force. They’re not creatures of the Force, but they do use its power to do evil. In The Mandalorian, we haven’t yet dealt with Force-sensitive stormtroopers. But Moff Gideon’s henchmen wear down the Mandalorians anyway.

What is new, however, is the Dark Trooper armour worn by Moff Gideon. With it, he hoped to one day unite the advantages of Jedi, Mandalorians and clones – for himself. Could this be foreshadowing for the upcoming feature film directed by Dave Filoni?

This is the Way

Enter: Paz Vizsla. When Gideon ambushes the Mandalorians and captures Din Djarin, the situation seems hopeless. But Paz isn’t one to give up. He’s a descendant of Tarre Vizsla, the first and only Mandalorian ever accepted into the Jedi Order and creator of the Darksaber. The same bravery flows through Paz’s veins. The same skill. So it comes to pass that the hulk throws himself in the way of the Dark Troopers, giving the remaining Mandalorians time to escape the ambush. His last words?

«This is the Way.»

Without a further word, he guns down one Dark Trooper after another from the sky until, finally, no one is left standing. Well, except Vizsla, who survives his feat. But I didn’t take Gideon’s Praetorian Guards into account ...

In the end, these guardsmen make short work of a battle-scarred Vizsla. He falls to the ground. What about Din Djarin? He’s trapped. And Imperial reinforcements are on their way to finish off the Mandalorian fleet in Mandalore orbit. Everything seems lost.

The stage is set for the finale.

What did you think of this episode? Are there any Easter eggs I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments! Next Thursday will mark the last chapter of this season – and the last episode review.

Header image: Disney / Lucasfilm

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Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»

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